home sweet home
by queendementor
Summary: the story of the carrows and maisie, and how they found a home in each other.


**home sweet home**

_a/n: for morsmordre's shipping week. prompt: n/a._

Amycus Carrow had had girlfriends before, as any sensible Death Eater should, but he'd managed to scare them all away with his hyperactive tongue. Maisie, though, was different. She didn't mind being licked, and she was even a respectable servant of the Dark Lord. He couldn't ask for better.

In fact, things were going so well that Amycus was even ready to have Maisie meet his sister. And if Alecto liked her, then Amycus had no reason not to propose.

The couple set up a time for Maisie to come over, about three hours off. Amycus rightfully assumed he'd need the time, particularly if he wanted to use his tongue for everything instead of his hands.

When he found her, Alecto was curled up under the table, chew toy dangling from her mouth. She had yet to remove her nightgown or brush her hair for the day.

"Alecto," he said. "Someone is going to be coming over, so you're going to need to get dressed."

She wrinkled her nose. In Alecto's experience, everyone Amycus brought home was boring, smelled like blue cheese, and/or didn't bring her a present, all of which she considered unforgivable. "No, thanks."

Amycus sighed. He should have known this would take a bit more coaxing.

"If you'll get out from under there, I'll give you a cookie," he wheedled.

-x-

Alecto quickly removed herself from under the table, nibbling her promised cookie. But the clothing situation was not happening. As soon as Amycus got a dress on her, it was under the bed and abandoned in favor of chewing on a clothes hanger.

This time, Amycus let her nibble the hanger while he attempted to get the dress on her again. But it ended up across the room anyway.

Maybe...she just didn't want to wear a dress today? Amycus tried a shirt and a pair of pants after that. They stayed on for a full six minutes.

Still, this was the most cooperative Alecto had been all day. He didn't try anything else, and only replaced it twice between then and when Maisie arrived.

-x-

Maisie's arrival was announced by knocks to the tune of a Metallica song (one Amycus had heard before, but he was too busy licking the speakers to pay attention when Maisie explained it.)

The caterpillar tongue shot out to open the door. "Ah, welcome, Maisie," Amycus said. "We were just about to have dinner. Which I have not licked."

Maisie's sigh seemed playfully disbelieving. "Of course you haven't."

Alecto just looked at her. She was already more interesting than most of the previous girlfriends, and she smelled like perfume and blood. Alecto had to say she was actually impressed with her brother's choice for once.

Dinner was an affair of roasted Muggles, potatoes, and some sort of wine that made Amycus's tongue even more active than usual. Maisie didn't even bat an eyelid when Amycus slurped his tongue up her face, which was quite surprising. Most people shrieked or tried to bat the tongue away.

After everyone ate, they retired to the sitting room to talk. This involved Amycus talking about tongue injuries and how to treat them, Maisie commenting on how it was very important to be careful with a four foot long tongue, and Alecto deliberately pretending she couldn't hear them. This wasn't far from evenings they would spend together later on, but of course no one knew that now. They could only see how well things went tonight.

A few hours later, it was decided that Maisie ought to leave. A bit of farewell licking followed, as it rightfully should have. But just before Maisie left, she turned to Alecto.

"Your brother told me you like these," she said, slipping a small wrapped package into the young woman's hand.

-x-

As Maisie stood on the porch, she took in the sight inside.

Alecto nibbled on the chew toy (with three different chewable areas) that Maisie had given her. Her clothes lay forgotten in a pile under the couch. A little ways away, Amycus licked the doorframe.

This family, she thought, was delightfully weird. With all the biting and licking, it was something Maisie could see herself becoming part of someday.

-x-

She did.

Amycus, surprising both himself and his girlfriend, proposed that night just as Maisie turned to disapparate home. Nine months later, Maisie was married to one Carrow and had adopted the other.

"And that's how our family came to be," Amycus said, closing the book and licking it. He and Maisie had written it themselves.

Alecto frowned. "You tell the mushiest stories, Amycus. And besides, I was already there!"

In the doorway, Maisie smiled. Even if Alecto didn't feel the need to hear that story over again, she still did.

Because that was how Maisie had found the two people she loved most. It was how she had found her way home.

_-end-_


End file.
